


The Bike Thief

by fangs_for_the_memories



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Childhood Friends, F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-19
Updated: 2015-09-19
Packaged: 2018-04-21 11:52:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4828109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fangs_for_the_memories/pseuds/fangs_for_the_memories
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Little six year old Laura Hollis is minding her own business when some random girl runs by and grabs her bike.  Except, she doesn't ride it away-- leaving Laura with the perfect opportunity to catch up with this hard bitten criminal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Bike Thief

**Author's Note:**

> Based off [this](http://otpprompts.tumblr.com/post/123970024110/imagine-person-b-is-on-a-bike-ride-of-some-sort) OTP prompt:  
>  _Imagine Person B is on a bike ride of some sort, and stops after a good mile to take a break. They’re standing around when Person A suddenly runs by, picking up Person B’s bike and taking off. From there Person B chases after Person A yelling, “AT LEAST RIDE IT YOU ASSHOLE!”_  
>  with slight tweaking to make it more fluffy.  
> Enjoy!

Little Laura Hollis grins as she bikes down the road. She hasn’t crashed. She hasn’t even come  _close_ to crashing.

_Daddy was afraid for nothing_ , she thinks smugly.  All the extra bike reflectors were _totally_ unnecessary.  And her bike helmet and kneepads and elbow pads were going to remain in their current shiny condition, _just_ so she could prove to her dad how _much_ he had overreacted.

He had been so against her learning how to ride a bike, but her mother had pushed and pushed for it when Laura turned four years old. And he never could say no to her, let alone to _both_ her and Laura.

Even then, he hadn’t let Laura ride beyond their block. At least, not until there was a small incident involving the school bus and a pot hole in town. Then, he figured that, with enough protection, Laura could make it to and from school on her bicycle, given her two years of experience.

And so the process of getting the bike up to spec began–– adding two bike horns, in case one hand had better reflexes than the other, regularly oiling the brakes and re-inflating the tires, making sure every possible angle had a reflector on it, and adding a nice finish on top of the yellow paint so any scratches would be visible.

But in the end, it had been worth it. Now, tiny six-year-old Laura Hollis could enjoy riding her bike to and from school.

 

Laura grins, thinking about the cupcake sitting comfortably in her _Doctor Who_ backpack, shaped like the TARDIS.  Her friend Lola Perry had given it to her during lunchtime.

Well, actually, Perry had given her three of them, but the other two hadn’t even made it to the end of the period.

Those cupcakes were _good_.

Laura finds herself already salivating over the cupcake and it motivates her to pedal faster.

 

But her phone starts ringing and Laura promptly slows to a stop— _safety first_ –– before hopping off her bike and answering the call.

“Hey, Danny,” Laura greets brightly.

“Laura Hollis,” a small voice huffily squeaks out on the other end.  “You took my coloring book!”

Laura’s eyes widen.  “What?  No, I didn’t.”

“But our cubbies are right next to each other,” Danny says.  “If you didn’t take it, then who…”

Laura decides not to point out the obvious as she leans her bike against the railing on the side of the road to adjust her backpack.

“…Oh…”  Danny sighs.  “ _Kirsch_.  That little meanie buttface!”

Laura giggles.  “Do you want me to come with you to his house?  I’m pretty sure his mom might not let you in after you gave him that purple nurple last time.”

“No,” Danny grumbles.  “I’ll just give him a wedgie tomorrow.”

“Okay.”  Laura chuckles again.  “Talk to you when I get home?”

“Mmhmm.  Sorry I blamed you, Laur.”

“It’s fine,” Laura replies sweetly. “Bye!”

She hangs up when a blur of movement passes in her peripheral.

 

Suddenly, Laura finds herself lying on the ground and some other girl is taking off with _her bike_.

“Hey!” Laura grunts, pushing herself up. “Come back with my bike!”

“Make me!” the bike thief taunts back.

Laura pulls off her helmet and hurls it towards the hard-bitten criminal, but it falls short.

Growing frustrated, Laura starts pulling off her elbow pads and throwing those, too, but they take weird turns mid-air due to their shape and miss her completely.

She finally resorts to pulling off her kneepads and using those as ammo, but that doesn’t work, either.

 

“Come back here!” Laura screams.

Her legs are too short to outrun the other girl, but for some reason, the other girl is still alongside the bike, instead of riding it.

“Or at least ride it, you poo-poo head!” she huffs.

The other girl merely cackles in response.

If only she had something denser that she could throw without it turning mid-air.

If only…

Laura’s eyes widen as she realizes that she had been pushed onto her _back_. The fall, which had been cushioned by the _backpack_. And inside the backpack was…

_The cupcake._

Laura continues running but slips her backpack off, unzips it, and grabs the crushed pastry.  Focusing her aim, she winds up a pitch and lets the baked good fly. To her surprise, it hits its mark, smacking the girl in the back of the head with a satisfying _thud_.

The girl stumbles and loses her footing, tripping over the wheel and crashing to the ground.

 

“Oh, my gosh, oh, my gosh,” Laura gasps, running up to the other girl.  “Are you okay?”

“What the frilly heck did you hit me with?” she grumbles.  She looks over at the wrapped treat on the ground nearby.  “Did you hit me with a cupcake?”

“I’m so sorry,” Laura says, dropping to her side. “Are you okay? I’m so s––”

She realizes what’s just happened and huffs.

“Wait.  No. I don’t care if you’re okay.”

The girl’s eyebrows furrow together as she frowns. “You don’t?”

“No!” Laura yells.  “You stole my bike, you–you bad person!”  She balls her hands into fists.  “You grabbed my bike and ran away with it and laughed at me and crashed it!  I don’t even _know_ you and you just did this super mean thing to me for no reason! Why would you take my bike like that?”

Laura glances over at the bike on the ground as her mouth drops open.

“You crashed my bike…  You _crashed_ my bike. You crashed my _bike_.”  Laura pouts as her voice cracks.

“Relax, cupcake girl, it’s just a bike.”

Laura rushes over to it and picks it up, inspecting it. There’s a large scrape along the side.

 

“Oh, no, oh no,” she whimpers.

The girl huffs, pushes herself up slowly, and walks over, bumping shoulders with Laura.  “Look, I— I’ll pay for it, okay?”

Laura shakes her head, and tears fall down her cheeks.

“What’s the big deal?” she scoffs.

“My mom bought me this bike,” Laura says tearfully. “We went to the store together and bought it together.”  She starts sobbing.

The other child looks confused and a bit frightened at Laura crumbling before her.  “So? She can go with you to fix the paint on the bike.”

“No, she can’t,” Laura mumbles with a sniffle.

The girl cocks her head to the side. “Why not?” she demands.

Laura shakes her head and her sniffles escalate into an all-out wail.

 

The other girl looks startled and doesn’t know what to do, but she figures a hug is the best bet.

_Right?_

 She awkwardly wraps her small arms around the tiny girl, and is surprised that they seem to fit together perfectly.  Because even though she isn’t too big herself, Laura is petite enough to fit right in her arms and nuzzles her face into her shoulder.

“Why not?” she asks again, more softly and gently.

There’s a few seconds of sniffling and deep breaths.

“My mom died a few months ago,” Laura replies quietly.

The other girl’s eyes widen and she pulls away carefully.  “I’m so sorry…”

Laura wipes her tears.  “Laura.”

“Huh?”

“I’m Laura,” she says through a watery smile.

“I’m Carmilla.”

Laura gives one more sniffle before a full grin brightens up her face.  “Nice to meet you, Carmilla.”

 

“My family just moved here,” Carmilla says. “My neighbors have a son named Will and he dared me to steal your bike.”  She knows Laura didn’t ask for an explanation, but figures it’s the least she can do.

“Oh.”

“I just really wanted to make friends,” Carmilla admits meekly.  “But it was wrong and I shouldn’t have done it.  I promise I’ll ask my mother to pay for it.”

Laura playfully swats Carmilla on the shoulder. “Nah, it’s fine.” She gestures to the scratch. “It looks more cool this way.”

Carmilla giggles.  “It does, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah.”  Laura looks Carmilla up and down.  “So… are you okay?”

Carmilla looks down at her scraped hands. “I’ll be fine,” she insists.

“Sorry for crying on your shirt,” Laura apologizes.

Carmilla shrugs.  “I––”

 

“Carm!”

A girl slightly older than them darts over.

“Carmilla, what are you doing?”

Carmilla’s eyes widen.  “Oh, uhm, I was… I…. Well, I-I––”

“I hit a hole and fell off my bike and Carmilla was helping me,” Laura interrupts.

The other girl raises and eyebrow and stares at Laura. “Nice try, blondie. I saw what my sister did.”

“Mattie, I’m sorry,” Carmilla says, frowning and staring at the ground.

“Was this because of the neighbor’s kid?”

Carmilla nods shyly.

The older child lets out a groan. “I know you want friends, but this is not the way to do it, sis.  And now you’ve gone and bothered this girl.”

“She wasn’t bothering me,” Laura cuts in. “Honest.”

The other girl stares at her dubiously before sticking out her hand.  “Mattie.”

Laura takes her hand in shakes it. “Laura.  Hollis.”

Mattie nods, the ghost of a smile gracing her lips. “Well, Laura Hollis, thank you for not thinking too badly of my _little_ _monster_.”

“ _Maaaattieeee_ ,” Carmilla whines, blushing.  “ _Stoppp_ …”

 

Mattie laughs heartily while Laura giggles.

“We will also totally pay for whatever damage she caused your bicycle.”

Laura shakes her head.  “It’s fine.  I’ll just tell my dad my kneepad scraped against it or something.”

Mattie smiles at her.  “I like you, Laura.”  She waves goodbye as she walks away.  “Come over any time.”

When Mattie was out of earshot, Carmilla helps walk back along the side of the road to collect Laura’s abandoned elbow pads, kneepads, and helmet.  “I can’t believe you called me a poo-poo head,” Carmilla pouts.

Laura laughs.  “If the poo-poo fits,” she replies.

Carmilla chuckles and nudges Laura with her shoulder. “Can I walk you home?”

Laura nods, beaming at her.

 

“You owe me a new cupcake, though.”

 

* * *

 

 

A slideshow begins, showing Carmilla’s first day at her new school, with Laura at her side.  Pictures of various school trips, sleepovers, birthday parties, and them playing outside transition into one another.  Soon, Laura and Carmilla are shown in high school, with their styles becoming total opposites.  Laura is very much into casual dresses and skirts in bright colors, while Carmilla is rocking leather pants and black tops.  In most pictures, Carmilla looks bored or apathetic, while Laura is flashing a thousand-watt grin.

Eventually, pictures of the girls in university as roommates begin to cycle through.  They show Carmilla with her arm draped over Laura’s shoulder at a party, them having study sessions, them napping on top of each other while exhausted.

There’s a small fade out, and pictures fade in of them–– as a couple.

Pictures of them ice skating together, of them having picnics, or them standing outside various tourist attractions during trips around the world.

The words, “Hollis-Karnstein wedding” float onto the screen, and the small venue explodes into applause.

A spotlight shines on the couple at a table, with Laura in a simple but elegant wedding dress, while Carmilla is in a spiffy tuxedo.

 

After the applause dies down, Laura takes the microphone first.

“We’d like to thank all of our family and friends for being here–– and thank those of us that couldn’t be here.” _Mom_.

There’s a small pause as Laura swallows hard.

“And we’d like to thank everyone who had the patience to not smack me when I spent years oblivious to the way Carm felt for me.”

Laughter ensues as Carmilla grins smugly up at her.

“But I eventually figured it out–– and I chalk it up to a lifetime head injury caused when we both met.”  More laughter.  “After all, how was I supposed to know that this girl who had been such a hard-bitten bicycle thief at six years old would wind up as my best friend and love of my life?”

She takes Carmilla’s hand and squeezes it.

“But here she is, the most loving and patient woman I have ever known.”  Laura looks down. “Carm, I can’t wait to spend forever with you.”

 

There’s a long round of applause as Laura takes her seat and hands the mic over to Carmilla.

“If anyone’s got the head injury, Laur, it’s me,” she begins, indicating to their wedding “cake”–– a tower of cupcakes. “Pretty sure even back then I knew you’d make an awesome pitcher for our softball team.”

Laughter ensues, particularly loudest from Laura’s father and Danny.

Carmilla clears her throat.  “And, uhm…  Well, I’m not too great with feelings or speaking in front of people in general,” she says awkwardly, “but… I…”

Carmilla puts down the mic and walks around the back of the screen for the projector.  After a few seconds, she wheels out a bicycle.

 

A bicycle with two bike horns, oiled brakes, fully inflated the tires, covered in 360º with reflectors, and a nice finish on top of the yellow paint.

“Holy fish fingers and custard,” Laura breathes out.

Carmilla grins as she approaches Laura with it.

“Carm…”

Carmilla holds up a finger.  “Hang on, Hollis,” she teases.  She waves in a vague direction, and Will, who wears an obnoxiously large pin that reads, “Matchmaker,” walks over with a box. He holds it as Carmilla lifts the lid.

Inside are a helmet, elbow pads, and kneepads, as well as a smaller box.

“They’re the same type I had when we first met… Oh gosh, Carm,” Laura says, her voice cracking.

Carmilla bites her lip to keep from smiling too widely, and takes the small box out, opening it carefully.

Inside is a cupcake, identical to the one in one tiny Laura’s backpack decades before.

This is the last straw, as Laura allows tears to fall freely.

 

Carmilla grins and leans in, planting a small kiss against Laura’s cheek.

“I can’t believe you did all this,” Laura says, tears still falling.

Carmilla grins and shrugs.  “I just didn’t want to start off this marriage off with me that far in debt to you.”

Laura rolls her eyes but laughs.

“Say it,” Carmilla teases.

“No,” Laura replies indignantly.

“ _Say it, cupcake._ ”

“ _No_.”

Carmilla pouts at Laura.  “Not even for your new wife?”

Laura bites the inside of her cheek and playfully cuts her eyes at Carmilla.

“I love you, you poo-poo head.”

Carmilla laughs and pulls Laura in for a kiss.

 

If given the chance to go back to that day when she was six years old, she would totally steal that bike again.

Because that day, Laura Hollis stole her heart.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it!  
> As always, thank you for reading! <3  
> You guys make a little [monstrous cupcake](http://romeo-oh-nomeo.tumblr.com/) super happy :)


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